Advertising Hiring Offers Bright Spot In September Jobs Report.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports there was a dip in the number of people working across the broadcast sector last month. BLS counts 328,100 working at broadcast companies and content providers, including radio. That was down 3,000 from the prior month. It was also 4.2% lower than a year earlier. The government doesn’t release radio-specific figures on a month-to-month basis.

But in a positive sign for radio and other media companies, BLS says the number of people working in advertising and public relations ticked higher in September. It says 478,600 people worked in advertising across the U.S., which was up by 1,800 jobs. The number is, however, down slightly from a year earlier when 2,700 more people worked in the sector.

The government reports the overall job market was weaker last month. BLS says total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 29,000. That may be up, but it is much smaller than what has been reported in recent months. It says employment in all major industries changed little over the month. The unemployment rate was up slightly to 4.2%. Even so, the unemployment rate has remained in a narrow range of 4.1% to 4.3% since March.

Experts say that while the job market is in a “low hire, low fire” cycle, the labor-force participation rate points to continued strength in the market. They also show that a feared wave of job losses tied to artificial intelligence has yet to materialize.

Revisions to earlier months show hiring levels in July were revised down by 31,000, and August was revised down by 29,000. With these revisions, employment in July and August combined is 60,000 higher than previously reported. BLS notes monthly revisions are the result from additional reports received from businesses and government agencies since the last published estimates and from the recalculation of seasonal factors.

BLS says the strongest gains in September were in health care employment, which continued its upward trend (+17,000), but at a slower pace than the average monthly gain over the prior 12 months. Nearly every other category had little change in its employment levels.

Average hourly earnings for all private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees rose by 5 cents to $37.81. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased 3%. The average workweek for all employees remained 34.4 hours.

Kory Kantenga, Head of Economics at LinkedIn, says the latest jobs report delivered more evidence that the labor market is leveling out. “Steady unemployment, modest job growth, and little change in wage growth and labor supply all point to a labor market that is holding up rather than speeding up,” he writes in a post. Kantenga says on LinkedIn the number of jobs available per applicant tells a similar story, having changed little over the summer.

Yet that stability is not translating into opportunity, as Kantenga says hiring remains “subdued” and competition for jobs remains elevated.

“Compounding that challenge for job seekers, the companies hiring are changing the skills they need at roughly twice the pace workers are updating their own skills on LinkedIn,” he says. “Finding work is still difficult, even if labor market conditions are not worsening.”